Aki
Aki leaned back in her chair, her eyes turning to the ceiling as the remainder of the room fell silent. Everyone coming to terms, or at the very least clinging onto the denial stage for all it was worth. Perhaps it was some insane joke, perhaps by the time she woke up tomorrow the authorities would have found a way to get them out of the game, perhaps this was just some absurdist dream and she would wake up to find she was late for a test, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Denial was a comfortable state of mind.

Still…

Aki let out a slow breath, her shoulders slumping beneath her sodden cloak. She was cold, she was tired, and she was here, as was the rest of this room. Tomorrow - tomorrow she could deal with this, internalize it somehow, let herself snap. Maybe just curl into a ball and wait. But, for now she was just tired.

She stood up, her fingers once more tapping at a console in the air, her cape vanishing into a flash of light off her shoulders, and with a few taps more her boots doing the same. Her kingdom she would give for dry clothes, but she had neither a kingdom nor the will to dash out into the rain to go to a clothing store. Instead she settled for stepping over to the edge of Yumi’s bed. She leaned across the bed and ran her finger through the crying girl’s hair and giving her a soft pat.

“We’re here together, and that’s what matters.” Aki said, her hand falling to Yumi’s shoulder which she gave a squeeze fore she stepped away. That finished she walked over to the table where a candle sat filling the room with a pale light, and with a puff of air Aki blew the light out.

————Day One, End————

November 28, 2027, 8:28 AM. Grimoire, Windy Suite, Room 15.Hisa
Warm. A breath in, a breath out. Something heavy pressing down against her chest. A faint murmur escaped her lips, a thoughtless sound of annoyance as the weight of conscious thought leaned upon her mind. Relenting, her eyes fluttered open, and Hisa suffered a moment’s worth of confusion. An unfamiliar bed, an unfamiliar room, and an unfamiliar head using her chest for a pillow.

Memory followed quickly after, logging in, yesterday’s announcement, meeting up with a few others and running to this inn. A shutter skittered up her spine, and for a long few minutes she remained still collecting herself.

A breath in, a breath out. Ignore the beat of her heart.

Finally, Hisa carefully raised a hand and tapped the girl lightly on the cheek. “Time to wake up.” She said lightly, before she turned her head to look at the other bed in the room. “Hey, Ichiro, you up?”

November 28, 2027, 8:28 AM. Grimoire, The Blessed Spring.Aki
Aki ran the tip of her index finger in small circular patterns on the water’s surface. It was nice to relaxing in a pool of warm water after having shivered away a majority of the night before, and Aki was reluctant to leave the pool. She would have to eventually, she knew, their group had things to take care of today, but for now it was nice just to be warm.

With a yawn, Aki lifted her arms over her head, disturbing the follow of the mist around her as she allowed herself a long luxuriant stretch. The game didn’t seem to particularly have feelings of cramped or stiff muscles coded in, yet it still felt pleasant enough to stretch. With a pleased sigh, she leaned forward, caught a small piece of wood with various soaps resting upon it and drew it towards herself.

“As I was saying, after we meet up with Rugaki, do we want to stick in town or head into the field?”

Do we want to hide out in the safety zone hoping we’ll be saved, or leave and gain some levels while everyone else is hiding?

Aki plucked up a purple floral smelling bar, before pushing the boat away with the back of her hand.

“Personally, I think most people will be looking to take care of quests within Grimoire, so it might be best to head out.” She said, rubbing the bar against her neck.

//… under her weight the floorboards gave, and she fell into the dark...// Fall of the Aelir Isles, Vol. III

Rugaki didn't say much more after that. He just silently and absent-mindedly rubbed the armour. Yumi did give him a bit of an earful for calling her short. Which was definitely not in Rugaki's mind when he said that. But when he was about to voice denial, the stubborn girl "Hmph" and turned away from him. Leaving Rugaki unable to say anything.

"Doesn't look like the rain'll be letting up tonight." Yumi said in reply to Aki's suggestion. After taking a quick glance at the window himself, he silently agreed. Even though he dislikes going to bed without a shower or bath, it seemed like they had no choice.

Somehow, after that. There was a heavy silence in the air. The kind of silence that was also.. Loud, disruptive, and chaotic. When he took a look at everyone's solemn faces he knew what they were thinking about. The weight of the situation dropped on their heads as the chatter stopped. His heart suddenly felt heavy. By now, the outside world, the real world, might be getting on to this. His friend, Hiro, must've already realized that.

clunk

Was the dull sound of something heavy falling on the floor.

Someone's heart fell

It was easy to see whose. The boy, concerned, tried to stand up. But he felt stiff, shackled by hesitation. It was obvious that Yumi wasn't taking this very well. He has to do something. So why won't he move? Maybe it's because time stood still. That moment felt longer than it should be. But then he saw Aki going towards Yumi, comforting her. Time started up again. Feeling released, Rugaki stood up. picking up the greaves that fell, and placed her armour on her nightstand. And this was his cue to say something comforting.

"Like Aki said, We're in this together, right? We're going to pull through, and we'll go back to our normal lives." He sat on the edge of Yumi's bed

While he was a little anxious at first, he slowly reached out to Yumi. Patting her softly on the head. "There-there.." He then noticed that Aki was going to blow out the candle. It was time for him to return to his own bed.

"Good night, everyone." He said that as he lay down in his own bed. But they all knew, it wasn't going to be a good night. But the great thing about sleep is that, more often than not, it'll make you feel better in the morning. He hoped that everyone was able to fall asleep that night. He did, after a bit of a struggle.

============================

Rugaki lay afloat effortlessly in the baths. While there were a few other men there, no one paid any mind to him. With the girls in their own room, he was left alone with his thoughts. Drifting.

So this is it..

Last night, before heading to sleep, the atrocity of their situation sank in. They were stuck here, there was no way out. It was an appalling idea that someone would design an entire game, only to make it a prison. Laughable, ridiculous, foolish. Surely, the outside world must have an idea of this. Family members would check in on the gamers, and it will become apparent that those who are playing in SoM are unable to get out. At least, not on their own. Pull the plug? That might work. If that does work, the news would circulate and everyone would be out of the game in a few days. However, if it didn't...

Rugaki rolled over, immersing his face in the water.

So then we're stuck here, until we get out, or die. While there was a chance that dying in the game just meant you'd be forcefully logged out and return to the real world, testing that would be hazardous.

Breathing out, the boy slowly sank into the bottom of the floral bath.

Maybe I could accept this as the new reality. Since dying here meant perma-death. Might as well shape a new life in this game world. I don't even have to try and escape. Just.. Live a new life here. I could think of this as a reincarnation. Accept the new life.

Accept the new life...

Acce-

In the middle of that thought, he stopped. He could see his sister's scowl, she's never going to approve of that mentality of his.

Nah, I don't belong here.

Rugaki raised his head up from the water, wiping his face so he can see again. The idea of his sister missing him already made him restless. Might as well be done with the bath and do some quests. He reached for a bar of soap on the side of the baths, and hurriedly scrubbed his entire body. Since he may or may not be returning to the baths again, he scrubbed for longer than he usually would in the real world.

He looked towards the stone wall that separated the men's baths from the girl's. Then towards the other users of the baths. "Hey, you three! I'll be heading out soon. I'll meet you all at the bathhouse entrance!" He then smiled both awkwardly and apologetically towards the other men.

Last edited by SuXeSoN on Tue Jul 03, 2018 2:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

If you clean your vacuum cleaner, you're making your vacuum cleaner, and you're a vacuum cleaner.

With a hard hit in the gut, a man managed to subdue Eikichi into a kneeling position while two others held his arms. They tied his wrists together and raised them, securing them against a pole placed horizontally just above a bucket filled with water. The man who spoke earlier, the apparent leader of the group, placed his palm on top of Eikichi's head and gripped his hair tightly. "I'll ask this one more time... Where are the others?" The way they dressed was not very specific, and he couldn't make what their faces looked like, only that they were three in a room with dim lighting.

"I told you... It's just me." Eikichi barely whispered, insisting.

"Very well then." The man let go of his head, and moved his hand in front of his neck from one side to the other, flattened horizontally, mimmicking a blade. The signal to kill him. Immediately after, one of his men pushed Eikichi's head into the water, holding it down while pressing his weight on his back as well. He struggled as long as he could, there were things he had to do, it couldn't end like this.

After almost a minute, his strength was drained and his lungs were empty, he couldn't resist anymore. Suddenly, a voice rippled through the water.

"Hey, Ichiro, you up?" It was almost soothing, comforting. He wondered if it was death's calling, asking if he was ready to go.

He wasn't. He had to fight.

...

Gasping for air, Ichiro clenched his hands into the pillow in which his head rested, all while he pushed himself upwards in one motion. His eyes opened wide, his mouth gapped, panting. Slowly, he let his arms give in to his own weight and laid on the bed. His head was turned towards the direction of Hisa's voice, immediately noticing Koriko's legs resting on his back, one of them managed to move to his neck. That explained the sensation of drowning, as he liked to sleep face-down, his breathing had been obstructed by the pillow and forced down by her legs' weight.

He was still recovering from the nightmare, sweating and still tense from the awful sensation. Still, they shouldn't have to worry about this, it was just a dream. The reality was even worse. "Yeah... I'm up." A low whisper came out. He patted the leg that was closest to his neck, almost like a tap-out signal. "Hey, Koriko, wake up. The whole town's waiting." A faint smile traced his lips when he said such phrase; it was the one he used to say to his sister whenever she slept for too long, and his parents to them before him. He never understood the meaning behind it, but it made him feel important, as if every day was packed with business, so it rubbed on him. With his other hand, he rubbed the back of his head --the part that wasn't full of leg-- and played with his own hair, it relaxed him.

Today was going to be completely different, yet so familiar, he could feel it.

"This is a block of text that can be added to posts you make. There is a 500 character limit, dood."

Even as Hisa helped to make sure she was doing it correctly, the menu refused to open. Koriko was worried even more as Hisa asked about a change of settings during character creation. The issue was half of the creation process got skipped or auto completed for her that she ended up in game without a tutorial. And thus she was at a loss. Koriko explained all of this and spent time wiggling and waving her limbs like a madwoman trying to hail a taxi, no menu showed up. Eventually they all had gone to bed so they might have a good early start in the morning.

“Time to wake up.” Hisa poked her cheek eliciting a tired grumble from the sleepy girl.

"5 more minutes." she whined further burying herself into Hisa's chest. It wasn't until something patted her leg that she was slightly more alert.

"Hey, Koriko, wake up. The whole town's waiting."

What?

Koriko was up in a flash and out of bed in a nearly singular movement of rolling over and out.

"I'm up!" she had exclaimed slightly paniced as she had momentarily forgotten she was not in a life threatening game. With a pause and a glance around her, she awkwardly waved at the other two with a sheepish grin.

Quitely Yumi lay there, the whites of her eyes stained red, most of her face enveloped by the pillow. She was reliving every single death, the sharp sound of each shatter made her tears flow faster. She begged for it to stop, she wished that the visions would cease to haunt her mind. In that moment, she realized just how scared of death she really was. This wasn't a game anymore, this was real... There were no second chances... Please... She thought to herself, her grip on reality slowly drifting.

As her vision began fading to black, a soft and soothing voice rang through the doubts and fears. It... It sounded familiar. Yumi quickly snapped out of her trance, roused by Aki's affirmations. Her crimson irises stared at Aki, Yumi's eyes still bloodshot from crying. "Y-You're right." She sniffled and slowly rubbed the tears from her eyes. "As long as we stand together, we won't fall." After that, her tears dried and she gave a curious look at Rukagi as he approached. He offered more consolidation, in kind words. Hesitantly, his hand patted her head and immediately her cheeks flushed red. Her head began to spin as the words he was speaking began to slur together. Why was this happening? Was it because she had cried so much? She really didn't mind this though, his hands were suprisingly soft... Her eyes slowly closed as conciousness left her.

Ahhhhhhh

Yumi let out a great sigh as she lowered herself into the water. Ripples danced across the water's surface as she sat down. Quickly, she took a deep breath and dunked her head underneath the surface of the water. The hot water scorched her face and the top of her head, but it felt way too good to go up yet. A few seconds passed before she emerged from the water again, her white hair sticking to the back of her neck and her forehead.

"I think we should probably head out as soon as possible, I personally want to go ahead and quest while supplies are still plentiful." She said calmly, slowly reaching out and grabbing the boat that aki had pushed away. She pulled it close and plucked one of the remaining bars from it. "I mean, most people are probably quivering in their boots right now." She exclaimed, flashing aki a wide and confident grin as she began to rub her arms with the bar.

For a moment, she stopped rubbing the bar against her skin and sank back down into the floral water. Yumi hated the feeling of fear and uncertainty...

I have to be positive... I-I have to be the tank!

Her voiced echoed in the halls of her mind, each reverberation giving her newfound strength. Quickly, she jumped out of the water, her haphazard action possibly splashing some people nearby.

The tank isn't some sissy who goes running at the first sign of danger! BRING. IT. ON!

For the first time since she entered this world again... She felt like she could take on anything. Yumi turned toward Aki, her eyes gleaming with this overwhelming courage. "Let's go."

Without another word, she had already hopped out of the bath and ran to get dressed, waiting near the entrance for the others.

Aki
“Yeah, on our way out soon.” Aki called back over the wall as Rugaki called to them. She quickly finished scrubbing her skin with the soap before dipping under the warm water. She remained still for a long moment, feeling her hair slowly settle around her and enjoying the warmth. She had seen the clouds this morning, and she wasn’t looking forward to another day of rain. With reluctance she popped her head up out of the water before pulling herself up out of the water. She wrapped a mercifully warm and soft towel around herself and followed Yumi to the changing room.

Clothed with her damp hair tied behind her head Aki stepped out into the lobby. She stretched as she made her way over to the entrance offering up a smile as she saw Rugaki and Yumi.

“Hope you didn’t wait too long,” she said, coming to a stop and looking past the duo. Dark clouds, but it wasn’t raining yet. “If we follow this street up that-a-way we should reach one of the main gates.” Aki said with a motion of her finger.

“Once we’re through that…” Aki trailed off. The ending was clear enough, that they would be in real danger then.

Hisa

“Hello,” Hisa said with a smile as she scooter herself up into a sitting position. She rolled her shoulders, and that alone felt almost sobering. After sleeping as she had, Hisa felt sure she should’ve felt far more creaky than she actually did. She couldn’t fix that now, instead she just needed to do what she could for her new friends. “You two aren’t morning people are you?” She asked with a light laugh as she slid her legs over the edge of the bed and cast a glance at the tangle of people.

She stood up with a yawn and walked over to a worn out basin. She quickly washed her face off with some cool water before stepping aside for one of the others.

“Well, how’d you all sleep?” Hisa asked, leaning against the wall next to the basin.

//… under her weight the floorboards gave, and she fell into the dark...// Fall of the Aelir Isles, Vol. III

Rugaki was already dressed and waiting for the girls at the entrance. Yumi was the second one to come out. Upon her appearance, Rugaki did his best to flash a smile at the face of adversity.

"So the bath was pretty nice huh?" Was what he thought of saying. However, as it was small talk, he didn't actually say that. They had more important matters to attend to after all.

"Our first quests would probably be pretty easy, but try not to push yourself, Yumi." Those were the boy's words of encouragement before Aki arrived. Who expressed hope that they weren't waiting for long. Rugaki shook his head. "Oh no, not at all."

Rugaki looked towards where Aki gestured. "Oh yeah, you've got us some quests yesterday right? So we're going to go out to the big wild world? What's the first quest we got to do?" In his mind, the first quests were supposed to be easy even solo. Doing them as a party shouldn't be anything to worry about. "I'd like to ask: What are your Non-Combat skills? I have Mining and Smithing equipped."

If you clean your vacuum cleaner, you're making your vacuum cleaner, and you're a vacuum cleaner.

Natalie finally woke up and groggily walked out of the house following them.

"Ugh...my head...I did NOT sleep well."
She looked at the others around her. "Oh, are you guys doing, like, game stuff? I spose I shouldn't interfere, I was just kinda gonna stay the night, and stuff...But...I dunno, it might be easier teaming up with you? That is...if you want me...and stuff..."
She looked nervous and pale. The previous night had not been kind to her and not a lot of sleep had been achieved. Strange, considering her real body had been asleep ever since she plugged in the damn controller.
"Video games kinda...were never my thing. I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and now I'm trapped here...jeez, what a first impression..." she followed up with, hoping to ease the tension. Her anxiety was beginning to show.

"Don't worry! I can handle myself after all!" She pouted as Rukagi's words of encouragement fell on deaf ears. "Didn't you hear of the Crimson Devil? That was me in the Beta test!"

As Aki arrived, Yumi flashed a wide grin, her face the calmest and most confident it had been since she arrived. Even though yesterday's revelation still gripped the back of her mind, she stood firm, swinging her great hammer to her shoulder as if it was light as a feather. With a loud CLANK it landed and it only futher clarified her vision. "For non-combat skills I have Scavenging and Appraisal." She thought, putting a finger to her lips. "If you find any unidentified objects just bring 'em to me!"

"Yeah I had grabbed some quests before the rain."Quickly, Yumi began fiddling with the menu, her fingers tapping and swiping air. "I have three. One is to slay a pack of Ash-wolves, the second is to find and catch an Ash-chicken and the last is to spy on a secret meeting." She looked up from her menu to the duo standing before her, crimson irises flaring with courage. "So, what'll it be?" Just as she asked the question, the mysterious girl from the other night approached.

"Well, it seems like we are still missing a support role in the group. Can you run support?" She asked, fully turning toward her. Yumi's armor clanked as she turned, the dull metal plates shifting from the sudden movement. Turning this way also swung her hammer straight toward Aki and Rukagi, but Yumi was oblivious, instead focusing completely on Natz.

“Well, looks like we’re all together, good morning!” Aki said with more enthusiasm than she felt as Natz approached. She had made her decision yesterday to head out of the safety zone and to try to clear the game, so she couldn’t get disheartened now. They had a party, so long as they had each other’s backs and kept an eye on their health things should be fine. It was a starting area after all.

She absently brushed off her right shoulder as she listened to the others speaking. Natz showing obvious worry, Rugaki getting down to business, while all the while Yumi seemed full of confidence. And what about her? She was just getting lost in her own head, wasn’t she?

“Oh, that’s a really good idea to share skills, I have sewing and woa-“ Aki cut off as she stumbled backwards, Yumi’s hammer swooshing through the space she had been in a moment before. “Hey, watch where you are swinging that thing! You almost hit Rugaki and I.” Aki said, bracing herself for needing to take another step back in the event that Yumi swung back her way.

She cleared her throat. “Anyway, once we finish sharing skills, we should probably decide on which quest we want to tackle first and set it as our focus.”

//… under her weight the floorboards gave, and she fell into the dark...// Fall of the Aelir Isles, Vol. III